Political consultations between Türkiye and Russia will be held in Istanbul on Thursday and Friday to discuss regional issues, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said.
Delegations headed by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and his Russian counterpart Sergey Vershinin will address the Black Sea grain export deal, as well as regional issues such as Syria, Libya and Palestine, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Early Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced the forthcoming meeting, saying engagement between the two countries carries on, and the exchange of views continues not only on Ukraine but also on other regional issues.
Türkiye has been internationally praised for its unique ability to act as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, which led to the resumption of the July 22 grain deal. Ankara has repeatedly called on Kyiv and Moscow to end the war that started in February through negotiations.
The visit comes at a time Ankara is pondering a ground operation against terrorist threats across its borders in northern Syria after the U.S.-backed PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing, the YPG, killed three people in mortar attacks in retaliation to Turkish airstrikes that followed a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul mid-November.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has since repeated his threat that Türkiye’s operations would not be limited to an air campaign, specifying northern Syria's YPG-controlled Tal Rifaat, Manbij and Ain al-Arab (Kobani) regions as possible targets to clear of terrorists.
According to the 2019 Sochi agreement between the two countries, Russia is responsible for removing YPG terrorists 30 kilometers (19 miles) from northeastern Syria bordering Türkiye. Likewise, then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence pledged to Türkiye that the YPG terrorist group would withdraw from the region.
“Unfortunately, even though we reminded them many times over and over, they did not do this,” Erdoğan said as he accused Kremlin and Washington of failing to live up to their commitments to facilitate the said safe zone.
“We said that we would not remain silent against this and that we would take steps against the terrorists there if they could not do it.”
As Türkiye and the YPG exchanged retaliatory strikes in November, Russia and the U.S., urged for de-escalation in the region, with the Kremlin warning Ankara against “destabilizing” Syria.
"We understand and respect Türkiye's concerns regarding its security. We believe this is the legal right of Türkiye," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S.; however, the U.S. supports its affiliate the YPG, which has controlled much of northeastern Syria after the forces of Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad withdrew in 2012. Strongly opposed to PKK/YPG presence in the region, Türkiye has been conducting counterterrorism operations across its borders.
